Jacksonville funeral home director given 5 years of probation for fraud, theft charges
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In addition to being given probation, a judge ordered 50-year-old Elliot Graham to pay $152,000 in restitution.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville funeral home director who was arrested last February for allegedly improperly handling remains of clients, has avoided jail time and is no longer allowed to be licensed as a funeral home director after having his disposition in Duval County court Wednesday morning.

Elliot Graham, 50, was given credit for time served in the amount of 364 days. However, the judge gave him five years of probation and ordered him to pay $167,000 in restitution for two cases he was sentenced in.

In one case, Graham was charged with 10 counts of “funeral and cemetery preneed licensee fraud” and one count of grand theft; he pleaded guilty to grand theft and was adjudicated guilty. In the other case, Graham was charged with false insurance claims, grand theft and petit theft; he pleaded guilty to grand theft.

“His share of proceeds from the sale of the business and his parents’ home/rebate will go toward this restitution,” State Attorney’s Office spokesman David Chapmen said in a statement. “The individual victims have already been made whole; the restitution goes back to the Division of Funeral, Cemetery, and Consumer Services. The victims and law enforcement are in agreement with this outcome.”

Graham was previously charged with five misdemeanor counts of improper preservation of a human body, but the charges were dropped on Feb. 28, 2024, court records show.

His arrest came after several families accused him of mishandling the bodies of their family members.

READ MORE: Family responds as loved one’s body found at funeral home months after she was meant to be cremated


According to court records, Graham refused multiple compliance checks before an inspection warrant was executed at Marion Graham Mortuaries on Jan. 30, 2024.

Graham’s arrest warrant states law enforcement found three bodies “infested” with insects inside bags at his business on Gandy Street in Jacksonville.

First Coast News spoke with the family of Ola Mae Brown Jackson just one day before they discovered their loved one was one of the bodies found inside the funeral home.

“She was for justice, and she would go to bat for you 100%, and she would expect us to stand up for her. Fight for her rights,” her family members said in a February press conference.

They’re one of several families that didn’t get the services they paid Graham for, according to police.

Another family told First Coast News they used Marion Graham Mortuaries for their cousin’s funeral and said their loved one was not embalmed correctly.

“We were barely able to have a wake,” said Danielle Streater. “The family viewed the body briefly. From there, we had to close it off for the public because the smell was horrible.”

The disturbing discovery at the funeral home prompted Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis to call for funeral home reform.

Patronis described the conditions at the mortuary as “alarming” during a Senate meeting on Feb. 13, 2024, and called for the amendment of State Bill 1098 during the state’s 2024 legislative session to give the state “enhanced oversight over the deathcare industry.”

Patronis argued that if the Department of Financial Services had greater emergency oversight over Florida funeral homes, his team could have addressed the issues found at the Jacksonville mortuary sooner.

“We could not access the property, because we needed a felony to be able to do this,” Patronis said while testifying before the Florida Senate’s Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government. “We needed to be able to act swiftly.”

The bill unanimously passed through the House on March 1, 2024, but was substituted by the Senate on March 6, 2024 with House Bill 989, which includes the same funeral home reforms.

 The bill then became a law when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed and approved it on May 2, 2024.

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